Indonesia to deport Chhota Rajan to India

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

Indonesian plainclothes policemen escort Indian gangster Rajendra Nikalje (C), widely known as Chhota Rajan, as they walk at Denpasar police office October 29, 2015, in this picture taken by Antara Foto. Indonesian police have arrested Nikalje, one of India's most wanted gangsters and sought in more than two dozen murder cases, on the resort island of Bali, the Central Bureau of Investigation said on Monday, ending a two-decade-long international manhunt. REUTERS/Nyoman Budhiana/Antara Foto

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia will deport one of India’s most wanted men on Tuesday to face charges in more than two dozen murder cases at home.

Rajendra Nikalje, widely known as Chhota Rajan, was arrested by police on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali last week, ending a two-decade-long international manhunt.

Rajan has been on Interpol’s wanted list since 1995 suspected of running a crime syndicate that engaged in extortion, arms struggling and contract killing.

“There are no administrative problems now. We have prepared everything (for his deportation),” Bali police spokesman Hery Wiyanto said, adding he would be flown back to India late on Tuesday.

Rajan, 55, had been living incognito in Australia, but fearing his enemies would find him, was able to fly to Bali where he was arrested without resistance, according to news reports.

India’s national security adviser devised a plan to secure the arrest of Rajan as part of a strategy to hunt down India’s most-wanted man, Dawood Ibrahim, Indian police and ministry sources told Reuters. The two are believed to have worked together.

Ibrahim is accused of masterminding a dozen bombings and grenade attacks in Mumbai in March 1993, killing 257 people and wounding more than 700 in the deadliest such attack in the nation’s history.